Did Jindal fake his anecdote?

And Hillary landed under sniper fire in Bosnia with Chelsea.

Short answer: yes.Let’s not dress it up all pretty; Jindal LIED.His story’s been dissected; he wasn’t with Henry Lee. He claims an insight/experience that Lee only having claimed LATER.Jindal didn’t misspeak. His memory was not in error. He LIED, and he lied thinking that he wouldn’t (maybe couldn’t) be called on it (since Lee’s now dead).He lied. He lied publicly and to the people for the purpose of looking good.For that, he ought to be publicly pilloried. People died, and he wants to wear their skins for political advantage.

Bob: Who will exorcise the exorcist?

Ikcape: No, they don’t. Some do. Hillary Clinton does. Bobby Jindal does. Shading the truth to put yourself in the best possible light is human nature. Making up stories about yourself out of whole cloth is not, and those few politicians who do it are held in contempt, appropriately so.

Let’s try Roland Burris and Governor Rod as examples, too. Closer to home are Speakers Tom and Sal and Senator Diane and Councilman Chuck.These are the people who are, in fact, elected and appointed to be our “leaders”. Notice that these are all Democrats…presumed “liberals”. Most are still on the public payroll either directly or through their retirement benefits.Where is the moral outrage from the media and the critics of the media to throw these bums out?

Are empty promises considered lies? (Generally speaking — this is not about Sal)

Dan: Maybe the dream just needs to be re-interpreted.

It may not be exactly 50 – 50 as to the ratio of Democrat and Republican liars, but on the law of averages I suspect it is pretty darn close over any 20-year period of time. Whether it is Gov. Palin, former Senator Stevens, former Gov. Blago, Gov. Jindal, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Roland Burris or Ted Kennedy – too many of our politicians have more than little white lies in their closet of skeletons. Maybe the oath of office should include a promise to tell the truth.

There’s the speaker’s intention/state of mind and then there’s the impact on the listener — and the two things may not be very closely related — so it’s hard to know how to compare “lies.”

Ikcape: Wait and see??? You use Sal DiMasi as an example. What did he do? I’m not asking you about the others. I’m asking you about DiMasi, one of your examples.

Let’s now turn the prism a might and look at the media types engaged in similar behavior. Mike Barnacle and Jason Blair come quickly to mind as do, to a lesser degree, Mary Mapes and Dan Rather. No profession is immune. Is it right to worship at their feet, too?

lkape – are you completely insane? You mention Blago, Burris, Chuck and Diane and then you say: “Where is the moral outrage from the media and the critics of the media to throw these bums out?” All of these have been pilloried and hounded about all sorts of things and have been repeatedly shamed and asked to resign.Stop watching the Disney channel and check out the news once in awhile.

Dan and lkCape, for starters…”Boston contractor Jay Cashman met privately last fall with House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi in a bid to ease permitting rules for wind farms in Massachusetts waters, a meeting that appears to contradict DiMasi’s earlier assertion that he never spoke with Cashman, a close friend, about legislation affecting Cashman’s business.”–Frank Phillips, Boston Globe, May 23, 2008.—-At least your consistent Dan. Who could forget your outrage last fall when during the VP debate, Sen. Joe Biden said, “Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie’s Restaurant…” Of course Katie’s closed in 1990, and Dan pounced on Biden for it. Right, Dan?

“The narrative underlying the indictment directly contradicts DiMasi’s previous statements that he was unaware of Vitale’s work on behalf of the Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers.”–Andrea Estes and Matt ViserBoston Globe, December 19, 2008

Hmmmm… independent views of Speaker Sal’s actions? Your views, Dan?This is not about specific politicians or their statements. It is about the propensity of our civic leaders to pad their resumes to get to or stay in a position of power. The anger, while well directed at the liar, needs to be focused at the electorate that continues to accept these puffers as the ones who control the destiny of our society.It is not party-specific. Here in MA, the move away from a single-party dominance of our political life might actually improve how we are actually governed.

Wow, those are some allegations about DiMasi! I’ll bet some have seen him jaywalking in the North End, too.I’ll also bet he never gets charged with anything.

You must be kidding me. Jindal hung from the highest yardarm? Hardly. A few blogs are talking about this, but it’s not even close to national news.The bigger sin, and the bigger news, is that Jindal stunk up the joint with that pitiful excuse for a speech, and a delivery that has made him the butt of ridicule, and deservedly so. No one’s going to forgive him that, least of all the Republicans.

Isn’t the bottom line on this one that Jindal gave a really lousy speech and has been taken to the woodshed on a number of counts? Let’s deal with that.

Joel: I know that Biden’s “lie” is the hit of the Internet right now thanks to Drudge. But you might want to check your facts.According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Louisiana’s unemployment rate rose from 3.8 percent in June to 5.9 percent in December. During that time period, 45,065 people in Louisiana lost their jobs. That adds up to approximately 250 per day — not 400, I’ll grant you, but a damned high number, and certainly one that contradicts the Jindal administration’s claim that the state was actually adding jobs.Now it’s nearly March. We know that the recession and unemployment have accelerated over the past two months. I don’t have January and February numbers of Louisiana, but I may just be looking in the wrong places.But I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if an average of 400 people a day have been losing their jobs in Louisiana since the first of the year. Would you?

Menino? What’s so hard about keeping on point? This is about a response that got carried off to fairy tale land, not a case of –potentially– misuse of public funds. Remember when Gov. Pete Wilson told his “doll house” anecdote? It fell apart when people wanted to know where they could order one.

NewsHound: It occurred to me this morning that there is something of a supply-and-demand dynamic going on that lies underneath the personal gain from lying part of the problem. We in the audience give lots of points to people for landing under sniper fire or standing up to the bureaucracy. If we reduced our need to see people as heroes (or villains), then the only things politicians could lie about would be mundane things like what they actually accomplished (which might be more easily measured). But I agree that the personal gain part makes it different from a merely entertaining party anecdote.

While I don’t think Jindal’s mediocre delivery was intentional, the appearance that Obama has no effective opposition may actually benefit the GOP in the next cycle.My opinion is that in Congress, the GOP should provide the worthy opposition to Obama’s most reckless programs, but that’s it. The GOP should suspend the token “opposition response” speeches and any other public maneuvering. Play dead, in other words. Let the Dems run amok, like they are currently doing. One recalls the lifeless Mass. GOP of 1986. Greg Hyatt, Royall Switzler, George Kariotis up for Governor. The local GOP appeared to be such a joke that Dukakis, Bulger and the rest of the Democrats ran wild, much like we see on the federal level today. The public’s response? Voter outrage and a Republican sweep of the ballot in 1990. That year, even Robert Hall, an elderly man from the Needham area, I believe, had put his name on the ballot for Norfolk County treasurer. No money, no campaign, just name on the ballot with an “R”. He was up against an unbeaten, powerful Democrat Quincy (the only city in Norfolk) city councilor. Hall had no chance. He told me that he went to bed and was awakened by a phone call from the Patriot Ledger at 3 AM. How does it feel, Mr. Treasurer? Similar scenarios played out across the state. Republicans would do well to let history repeat itself on the national stage.

Nial, call it what you will, but since they’re powerless to stop his agenda, the GOP should allow Obama free reign to spend, tax and marry everything he wants. Sure bet, public outrage will boil over.

Ani: Telling lies or even embellishing one’s accomplishments for personal gain, and especially in politics which is so often the case, is immoral, unethical and a violation to our society, whether or not in struggling mode as we seem to be now. You hit the nail on the head.Some people are born to tell stories and embellish to entertain, and love being a humorist, and some of these people even become politicians and that is fine so long as they don’t con the public. Thanks for your comments.

Repeatedly lying about unethical and potentially criminal backroom legislative deals is akin to jaywalking?What a person says to a reporter is not subject to perjury charges but we’d agree that once you lose trust in a person, you won’t re-elect them.You better spell out the alleged unethical behaviour. It’s not clear what you think is unethical. I noticed you did not use the word illegal. Any reason?People aren’t cited for jaywalknig in Boston but go to Seattle or San Fran and get yourself one. It’s kinda surprising. Di you mean to leave out the assertion that Dimasi is anti-semetic?